Take Me Out To The Ballgame
by MonaCK
Summary: An excursion meant to bring up morale takes a comedic twist.


Title: Take Me Out To The Ballgame  
  
Part: 1/1  
  
Rating: PG-13 -- if you can watch an episode, you can read this.  
  
Disclaimer: I might know Ed Bernero, but alas, the characters are not mine.  
  
Summary: An excursion to build up team spirit turns comical.  
  
Author's Note: I began to write this while watching the Mets/Yankee game on TV. I was inspired. What can I say? :) Enjoy. :)  
  
"Your whistlin' is drivin' me -crazy-!"  
  
A ballgame. The entire Third Watch of the 55th precinct was going to a ball game. Somehow, Swersky had arranged it, having folks from the other watches cover the shift. But after everything that the shift had been through in the past few years, the big brass had somehow, for some reason, deemed it a good idea to treat everyone to a "fun day". The choice -- tickets to the Mets/Yankees game that was being held at Shea Stadium.  
  
Yay for them, boo for Faith. What did she want from a ball game? It was bad enough that when Fred was still around, she used to have to deal with him going to watch the games both at the local bar, as well as the stadiums. But the guys sure seemed excited about it. In fact, Bosco hadn't stopped whistling 'Take Me Out To The Ballgame' since they found out that they were going.  
  
"Killjoy," Bosco complained, as he pulled the RMP down a busy street. "C'mon. You jus' KNOW it's gonna be fun..."  
  
"Fun for who," She muttered under her breath.  
  
"Fun for all of us. I'll make sure it happens. I swear.. the weather is supposed to be beau-tee-ful on Sunday. It's gonna be a great game, and it's gonna be a great day."  
  
Faith was glad that Bosco was so confident. She, however, was not too sure.  
  
"Take me out to the... ballgame..."  
  
"Davis..."  
  
"Take me out to the... crowd..."  
  
"Ty..."  
  
"Buy me some.. peanuts and.. cracker jacks.. sing it, Sully!"  
  
"If you dont' shut up I'm gonna smack your ass," He sang, to the same tune of the next line of the song. Man. How much did this suck. Working a crap job... and now, having to take some of his day off, because these things always managed to fall on his day off, doing something that was mandated as being 'fun'.   
  
"Man, Sully. Why are you such a bundle of sunshine today? Aren't you excited about the ball game?"  
  
"Lets see. A game that's all about waiting for a guy who makes more money in one game than I make in an entire year hit a little ball with a bat while he jogs his jagoff ass around some bases while we pay an overpriced amount of money to drink soda, eat hotdogs, and maybe, if we're lucky, not have to stand in line to take a piss... oh yeah -- I'm really looking forward to the game." Sully was sullen and moody, and it showed with every word that he spoke.   
  
Ty shook his head. "You're -gonna- have a good time."  
  
Sully shrugged. "Whatever. Can you concentrate on drivin' please? And please. Stop singing... for the love of all that is good.. STOP singing..."  
  
"Can you.. please... stop doing that?"  
  
Kim was slowly, methodically, hitting her head against the side of the bus while Carlos was driving it. And it was slowly, methodically, driving Carlos insane.  
  
"I mean, why a baseball game," Kim finally said. It was the first words she spoke all afternoon. "I mean.. anything but baseball. Jimmy was obsessed with baseball for a while. When Joey was a baby, he was sure that he was going to get on the Yankees..."  
  
She shook her head, and Carlos had to restrain himself from rolling his eyes. "But this'll be different. Jimmy won't be there, and it'll just be all of us..."  
  
Kim rested a hand on her slight bulge from her pregnancy, and continued to speak, seeming to not even hear what Carlos was saying. "Just great. I have to pee like every hour, and I can't even enjoy beer. It's how I used to get through ball games -- getting rip roaring drunk. Because the games are so boring that you can poke your eyes out with a fork. Seriously. Who likes baseball..?"  
  
Carlos continued to drive silently, afraid that any other attempts at conversation would be ignored.   
  
"I mean... it's ridiculous. I'll be you they won't even pay us... Carlos? Are you even listening to me...?"  
  
Finally - she acknowledged that he was in the bus. "Do you ever think that -maybe- you'll have a good time at this? I mean... everyone is going to be there. If nothing else, you can watch the fireworks between Faith and Cruz. That ought to be enough to write home about for a while. Because. Grace will be there too..." Not that that mattered to anyone else but Carlos.  
  
"Great," Kim mused. "So not only do I get to watch a boring baseball game, I get to see you pathetically try to pick up women..."  
  
Carlos grinned. "It's fun for me..."  
  
The day of the game finally arrived. Once everyone finally made it to the stadium (a couple of the guys actually took the trains to Yankee Stadium before realizing that the game was actually at Shea Stadium), they were brought inside. There was an equal distribution of Mets and Yankees uniforms in the stand -- and that included the motley crew of folks from the 55.  
  
Davis? A Yankee fan. Carlos and Bosco favored the Mets, while DK and Walsh both favored the pinstripes. Faith found herself sitting next to Kim, who looked about as thrilled to be at a ballgame as she felt. Levine was sitting quietly, humming to herself while eating a pear -- she hated ballpark food, and refused to fill her body with those foreign toxins. Grace was sitting, a sleeveless t-shirt on with a non descript baseball cap. She was probably aware that she was slightly distracting to the guys who were there, but she didn't care. She wasn't there for the baseball. She wasn't there for the company. She was there to work on her tan.  
  
"It's hot out here," Sully complained as he sat in one of the aisle seats. "And the friggen seats are too small for my body. Damn it. Why can't they make anything normal sized?"  
  
"You are -far- from normal sized, Sully," Bosco quipped, as he turned to stare at the fellow police officer. He was not only wearing a Mets Jersey, he was dressed as an uber-Met fan. He had his face painted orange and blue. He was wearing a Mets cap, and he had one of those foam fingers that annoyed all the other fans in the stand. He also had his glove, on the off chance he caught a fly ball.  
  
"Who the hell chose these seats, anyway," Carlos complained. They were sitting in the upper level. "I can barely see the players on the field.  
  
"I did," Swersky stated. "You're lucky the department sprung for anything at all, so be happy with what you have."  
  
"So, do you see Jimmy much?" Faith asked, as she tried to ignore the sophomoric behavior going on around her. At least she had someone else to talk to, and if nothing else, she could talk babies and kids with Kim. That was always a safe topic.  
  
Kim shook her head. "I told him I was pregnant, and he freaked. We've talked occasionally.. but I think it's really over this time. It's okay. At least I know where I stand now, and I know I can raise this kidlet on my own.." She was unconsciously rubbing her hand over her bulge.  
  
Faith laughed, a bit bitterly. "Who needs men, anyway. I think we should all just start a commune.. take our kids there.. .and forget about the whole species..." She flipped a finger towards Bosco, who was screaming at whatever ball player was up at bat, and then towards Carlos, who was acting like an ass towards Foster, who was doing her best to ignore that he existed, let alone was sitting right next to her.  
  
Davis sat down next to Sully, a wide grin on his lips as he began to hand food and drink over to Sully. "I got hotdogs.. and nachos... and a soda for you... see? I -told- you this would be fun, ha HA!" Davis leaned back in his seat, looking down towards the game with a beer in one of his hands. "I'm tellin' you, Sul. Perfect day. Perfect game."  
  
"I should have stayed home," Sully mused, feeling absolutely miserable. "I mean... I could have watched this in my underwear on my barka lounger, and not had to worry about the sun, or bug bites.."  
  
"Okay, Sul. There is such a thing as too much information, and you just crossed right over that line, bro..."  
  
"You JAGOFF! The Yankees SUCK! Can't you see that? Don't you get it? The Yankees can't friggen score to save their lives! Look at that scoreboard. That's right.. that's right.. it says Yankees SUCK!" Bosco had already had one too many, and he was in the face of one of his fellow police officers, who was a Yankee fan. All other conversation stopped as the two of them went at it. Even Carlos stopped ogling Grace while this was going on.  
  
"See? Men. They all suck," Faith stated with a nod.  
  
"Grace hates me," Carlos sulked, sitting on the other side of Kim.  
  
Kim looked over towards him in amusement. "And you were doing -so- well, there, Carlos. What happened to chippin' away? What happened to your sexual mojo? What happened to you being God's gift to women?"  
  
Carlos shook his head. "I'm losing my touch. She threatened to demasculate me. I'm not even sure what that means!"  
  
Faith stifled a laugh. She cast a glance over towards Bosco, who was sulking in a seat not far from her. "You take care of demasculate boy. I need to make sure Bosco's alright," she stated, unable to keep a slight chuckle from leaving her lips.  
  
"It's not funny."  
  
"No, it's quite funny," Kim stated. Despite herself, she reached over and gave Carlos' hand a quick squeeze. "Don't worry. She wont' demasculate you. I'm pretty sure you've been that way for years..."  
  
Faith, leaving the conversation behind, made her way over to Bosco. "Enjoyin' the game?" she asked, as she slid into a chair next to him.  
  
"No." His answer was quick. "The Mets suck. They're losin', and they're gonna lose this game..."  
  
Faith shook her head. He looked absolutely ridiculous. Half of the orange and blue makeup had melted in the sun, and with him not even being cheerful about things, he seemed more like a spoiled child than anything else. But still, Faith couldn't help herself. "You never know. They might come back."  
  
"No. They suck. Baseball sucks. I wanna go home."  
  
"It's only a baseball game," Faith said, sighing audibly. She was having some major flashbacks. At least this drunk guy wasn't going to be wanting to try to sleep with her when it was all over.  
  
"Ha HA!" DK exclaimed, as the last pitch of the ninth inning was thrown. "10 - 9 Yankees. Your Mets gave it a valient effort," he stated, directed of course towards Bosco. "But they just came up a little short in the end. Too bad. So sad..."  
  
"Bite me, bucket boy." He crossed his arms over his chest.   
  
"You wish I'd bite you." DK put on his best feminine voice, causing the othee firefighters to burst out laughing.  
  
Faith was laughing too, and that only caused Bosco to get sulkier. "Can we go now?"  
  
"Yeah, can we?" Sully was right up with Bosco. He started out having a bad time, and he ended up having a bad time. "If I leave now, I might actually be able to get home in time to watch the news tonight."  
  
They all left the ballpark, and headed over to the trains to go home. The rivalry was still there -- Bosco vs. the Bucket Boys, Carlos vs. Grace, Sully vs. the world, and the Mets vs. the Yankees. But even if none of them wanted to admit it, they had fun that day -- even if for only a few moments.   
  
Well, everyone but Sully, of course.  
  
Fini 


End file.
